Economics and Management 8 (2) 2016

The article contains theory-cognitional and empirical parts, which aim is to diagnose the organisational reasons of burnout being detected by managers in organisations, which they work in. The group of 45 representatives of managers who are the students of Executive MBA in INE PAN in Warsaw took part in the research. The managers’ opinions about organisational risk factors of burnout which occur in their work environment were the subject matter. The tool used for research was questionnaire of polling. The following research problem was worded: What organisational factors which raise the risk of burnout are detected by representatives of managerial staff in their work environment? The analysis of respondents’ statements enable to emerge of the following categories of burnout risk factors: the pressure (of the time, responsibility, expectations), lack of possibilities to develop the occupational abilities and seat promotion, the reasons entrenched in wrong interpersonal relations, lack of appeasement of basic employees’ need, blunders in motivational system and work organisation, lack of real possibility of making decisions. Vicariously, the research results indicate senior staff individualistic inertia. The respondents are conscious of burnout risk factors, but they do not take enough effective action building friendly organisational environment and promoting healthy lifestyle. They estimate that the impact of these things on mental hygiene improvement in enterprises is little. They are prone to detect potential resources of burnout in factors, which they do not have direct influence on, for instance in the rules enforced by the high level managers, in law of tough market competition etc. There are no statistically significant differences between the responses of men and women. The article develops knowledge in the area of organisational behavior.

Keywords:
burnout  organisational stress  managers’ perception 

The main objective of the paper is to show the importance of building partnerships with suppliers, and then present the results of their own tests verifying the following hypothesis: Most of the furniture industry companies in Lower Silesia takes into account the partnerships relation with suppliers in their formulated business strategy. The present studies were carried out using CATI method and they included a research samples consisting of 110 enterprises of Lower Silesia. Enterprises were selected for testing using a special purpose method, and the selection of companies was based on the factors such as: regional differences, Lower Silesia region is divided into cities and villages, basic products and the activity period, size of employment, organizational and legal form, basic profile of activity. An interview with companies’ managers was based on an anonymous survey questionnaire. A time range of research took into account 2 phases: phase I – an exploratory phase: February – May 2013 and phase II – the essential phase: the period up to early 2014. The Studies have confirmed the formulated hypothesis. Most of the companies of the furniture industry have developed an overall strategy in the form of official or unofficial document. They are characterized by a high degree of diversity, both in terms of accepted legal form, number of employees, year of establishment, business profile and range of operation. They see the impact of relationships with suppliers for the modernization of the products in the context of improving their quality. For theoretical contributions can be considered deepening and ordering problems in the field of building partnerships with suppliers in terms of the overall business strategy formulation. The results of the study should help companies in building partnerships with suppliers appropriately using the proposed roadman; conducting quantitative and qualitative research, to assess the impact of the company's overall strategy for relationships with suppliers.

Keywords:
partner relationships  suppliers  trends in management  company strategy 

The main purpose of the paper is the analysis of a process of change focusing particularly on the concept of slimmed production (Lean) and its implementation in the enterprise. A case study method was chosen as a research tool because it offers wide array of techniques and means of gaining and data analysis. In the article a metallurgical company was evaluated as a case study. Thanks to implementing of Autonomous Maintenance the company reached a growth in skills and responsibility for work done and a reduction in malfunction of work places. Thus to the analysis one of the Lean concept tools was taken – total process maintenance (TPM) which implementation significantly influences industrial workers’ competences. Referring to the subject bibliography within change management, the article focused on one of the changes in particular – the change in human resources management (it is within their skills) in steel and manufacturing companies.

Keywords:
change management  Lean Manufacturing concept  autonomous maintenance  employee involvement 

The main objective of this paper is to identify the system of knowledge management in contemporary process organizations in business process perspective, especially with regard to technological and social conditions. Methodology is based on literature analysis and case studies. The integration of knowledge management technologies, concepts and methods into organizational business processes is challenging research issue today. The concepts of knowledge management and business process management should be analyzed jointly in the contemporary enterprises. Despite of the growing interest among researchers and practitioners of the concept of the knowledge management referring to business process management there is a lack of articles in this area. Appropriate approach to the modelling of knowledge management processes, as well as the use of IT tools, and a motivation system are of key importance for the introduction of this solution in organizations.

Keywords:
knowledge  knowledge management 

The scientific purpose of the study is an attempted synthesis of the concept of technological entrepreneurship. The cognitive aim of the publication is to present the functionality of an innovative technological solution the uses authorial applications and interactive devices designed and commercialized by the analyzed technology start-up. The application of the empirical method of a case study has made it possible to characterize the essence of technological entrepreneurship and illustrate the progress and development of the studied phenomenon in business practice. The functionality of an innovative multimedia project has been presented as the exemplification of technological entrepreneurship in cooperation between commercial enterprise and business environment institutions. It has been pointed to measurable economic and social outcomes achieved by the company as a result of conscious implementation of the concept of technological entrepreneurship. Case studies in the field of technological entrepreneurship should develop the existing theory and provide explanations of the hitherto unrecognized phenomena. The author proposes the understanding of technological entrepreneurship as a process that combines the elements of academic and intellectual entrepreneurship with the entrepreneurship of commercial organizations implementing new technologies in the market environment. The designed innovative multimedia project supports the management of information for travelers and information regarding fleet management in public transport.

Keywords:
technological entrepreneurship  technological innovation  multimedia solutions  technology start-up 

It is in the recent years that the automotive branch was remarkably affected by the global economic crisis. The companies that are located in Poland make up a significant element of the global system. The present paper analyses the most important data that describe the activities of these companies in the years of crisis (the research covered the period from 2005 through 2012). It is possible to formulate the thesis that this is the group of entities that relatively well coped with the difficult situation encountered in the environment. Thanks to the analysis that was made it was possible to point to the regularities that increased the possibility of making a success in this kind of circumstances.

Keywords:
firm goal (L210)  organizational behaviour (L220)  firm size (L250) 

The aim of the study was to determine whether the Podlasie entrepreneurs think about neighboring nations (Belarusian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Russian) in a stereotypical way (assigning them certain negative characteristic) and, if it affects in any way the decision about cooperation. The theoretical part of the article concerns the concept of stereotype, its features and functions. In the empirical part the results of researches are presented. They were carried out on a group of Polish entrepreneurs (in Podlasie) in order to identify their attitudes and opinions on some neighboring nations (Russians, Belarusians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians). The research was a pilot study, the sample included two hundred entrepreneurs, the authors’ questionnaire was used. In the light of the study negative national stereotypes seem to have a great importance in creating cross-border networking.

Keywords:
stereotype  national stereotypes  cross-border cooperation  entrepreneurs of Podlasie 

By analysing the processes of clusterization and networking, attention is drawn to the necessity of integration of railway transport into the intermodal or multimodal transport chain. One of the most widespread methods of combined transport is interoperability of railway and road transport. The objective is to create an uninterrupted transport chain in combining several modes of transport. The aim of this is to save energy resources, to form an effective, competitive, attractive to the client and safe and environmentally friendly transport system (Vasiliauskas, 2004). Under the modern conditions of globalization and integration into the European Union, the processes of networking are becoming increasingly more important, as perspective processes and the ones meeting the modern trends of development in various areas. In the context of intensive changes in the life of the society and business development processes, networking processes inevitably make influence on intermodal transportation. Therefore, the processes of clusterization, networking and integration have a significant impact on international economic area, including the development of a single social, scientific and technological advance, information and transport system.

Keywords:
Railwy transport  clusterizaton  intermodal transportation  internationalization  networking processes  globalisation  contrailer